September 2023 News

Electrification Webinar

​Ironbark has opened up registrations to their first big event, a webinar from 11am-12pm (AEDT) on Thursday 5th October 2023 for council staff, councillors, state governments, community groups, researchers and advocacy organisations interested in playing a role to support household electrification.
 
The webinar will communicate effective actions that councils can implement, and discuss strategies, policies, planning changes, funding avenues or advocacy that councils can champion to support household electrification. It will help set the scene on activity to date and provide an overview of existing resources and activities, case studies and Q&A. We’ve got some experts to come and identify and share replicable actions for local governments that incentivise and support residents to electrify:

• Imogen Jubb from Ironbark Sustainability to give a high-level overview, update, funding opportunities and state-of play.
• Electrification communication guru Donna Luckman, the Zero Carbon Campaigns Lead at Merri-bek City Council to give an overview of Electrify Everything: Communications Message Guide for Households and the Electrification Community of Practice run with over 100 local council officers focused on communicating the importance of electrification.
• Dr Rachel Goldlust, Sustainability Researcher at Renew who developed the incredible Getting Off Gas Toolkit.
• Dr Sangeetha Chandrashekeran, Acting Director of Melbourne Sustainability Society Institute at the University of Melbourne focusing on how to address the barriers to moving off gas faced by lower-income households and vulnerable communities.
• Kate Nicolazzo and Amy Brand from Let Me Be Frank, bringing their expertise on the challenges and solutions for tricky area of apartments and renters.
• Lisa Cliff from Better Futures Australia and Scott McKenry from the Eastern Alliance for Greenhouse Action to look at advocacy to the Federal government, multi-level governance and on-the-ground project procurement and implementation.

Registration details are here and a little more background (and potential updates) here.
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Water Banking in the Goulburn Murray

Don't forget to register for GMCA and CSIROs forum on Managed Aquifer Recharge on Thursday 28th September. With El Nino and an Indian Ocean Dipole sitting on the doorstep this is a very timely, even overdue, forum which will lead to much needed adaptive projects across the region. Australia is the driest inhabited continent on earth and yet has made very little progress in terms of securing its water resources.

You can find more information about the event itself here, including speakers who are travelling to present from South Australia and Perth, and more about Managed Aquifer Recharge itself and our project here.
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If you don't have an invitation yet please email the Executive Officer.

VGA Conference hits new record

​The Victorian Greenhouse Alliances 2023 Conference went off with a bang last month on Friday 4th August. A record number of attendee's booked this year, well over 400, making it our most successful event to date. 

It was lovely to see so many familiar GMCA faces including those from Wangaratta, Murrindindi, Shepparton, Strathbogie, DEECA Hume, and GBCMA. I hope you all filled out the feedback so the 2024 Conference can come back just as good and even more relevant.

Get Your Naturally Cooling Towns On!

As you may remember Naturally Cooler Towns examined all 13 GMCA councils resourcing and potential to tackle the impacts of climate change in the area of open space and street plantings. The results of this important research led by Urban Forest Consulting can be found on the GMCA website here.

Two councils have gone on to leverage the work of Naturally Cooler Towns, Indigo Shire Council and Mansfield Shire Council. Indigo was successful in obtaining a grant from Emergency Management Victoria which it matched to undertake the recommendations of NCT. Mansfield Shire Council is currently leveraging the NCT research to support plantings on new subdivisions in the Mansfield area, which has seen enormous growth post-COVID.

Please send your post-NCT story in to the Executive Officer - everyone loves to see how these projects we work so hard on grow in value beyond wrap-up!

Recharging Goulburn Murray

GMCAs project officer David Meiklejohn has been working hard on our panel of preferred electrification providers (just saying that is hard enough!).

David has been consulting and meeting with GMCAs members, business and community groups all year after we received funding for his role from DEECA Hume's Climate Ready Hume grant initiative.

Here is the Consultation report, and this is the Recharging Goulburn Murray draft RFQ for future tender, which we hope to step into next year after a lead council is settled. Discussions are ongoing with LG procurement committees.
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Any questions or suggestions are welcome and can be forwarded through to the EO. If your council feels it could be a leader in the electrification of the Goulburn Murray, let's talk!

Neighbourhood Batteries!

GMCA has successfully partnered with Central Victorian Greenhouse Alliance and the Gippsland Alliance for Climate Action to roll out some 22 business cases for the state government Neighbourhood Battery Initiative.
Our GMCA participants include Wangaratta City, Alpine Resorts Vic, Strathbogie Shire, Alpine Shire, Murrindindi Shire, Benalla, Mansfield and Campaspe Shires.

Indigo Power has been successful in the tender to roll out the business cases and we are very happy to have local talent undertaking such a pivotal statewide initiative. It's also fantastic that the Alliances are so active in promoting regional economic growth that's sustainable.

The kick-off meeting was in mid-September, and the EO is on the Project Steering Group ensuring things stay on track, so watch this space!